I would have found this forum before I purchased my fish for my first setup. I had a 45 gallon hex and the pet store told me that Boesman rainbows, green tiger barbs, serpae tetras, and a common pleco would be just fine in there. Grrrrrrr!! I found out just how wrong that was when they all grew into little monsters with no real swimming room. Luckily they all got along.

I rehomed the pleco when he got to be approx. 6" long because I couldn't upgrade at the time since we were building a house in another year.

So, moved to new house and set up a 75 gallon. All the 45 gallon fish survived and were thrilled with their new home.

My second rewind button would be to realize that a 100 - 125 gallon tank would have fit just as nicely on the wall that the 75 gallon is in front of

I would have found this forum before I purchased my fish for my first setup. I had a 45 gallon hex and the pet store told me that Boesman rainbows, green tiger barbs, serpae tetras, and a common pleco would be just fine in there. Grrrrrrr!! I found out just how wrong that was when they all grew into little monsters with no real swimming room. Luckily they all got along.

I rehomed the pleco when he got to be approx. 6" long because I couldn't upgrade at the time since we were building a house in another year.

So, moved to new house and set up a 75 gallon. All the 45 gallon fish survived and were thrilled with their new home.

My second rewind button would be to realize that a 100 - 125 gallon tank would have fit just as nicely on the wall that the 75 gallon is in front of

I should be in the clear. I don't think I'm going to have too many big spills hauling a single 5 gallon bucket back and forth!

Oh you would be surprised! I've had a bad spill or two. I use a 5 gal bucket to haul the water away from my 10 gal betta tanks. I can count a few times when I have been rushing to complete a water change and had to clean up a huge mess with all the towels in the house.

I think the basic point of this thread is patience in everything to deal with fish. I'm actually pretty good when it comes to patience with my fish. Much better than I would have been if I started this hobby about 7 years ago. Right now I'm waiting on silicon to dry (almost as much fun as watching paint dry ).

Oh you would be surprised! I've had a bad spill or two. I use a 5 gal bucket to haul the water away from my 10 gal betta tanks. I can count a few times when I have been rushing to complete a water change and had to clean up a huge mess with all the towels in the house.

I think the basic point of this thread is patience in everything to deal with fish. I'm actually pretty good when it comes to patience with my fish. Much better than I would have been if I started this hobby about 7 years ago. Right now I'm waiting on silicon to dry (almost as much fun as watching paint dry ).

That does seem to be a recurring theme! Maybe we should write that article and submit it for Sticky status.

I would have never attempted an Oscar, a Clown Knife and a Black Ghost knife in a 10 gallon aquarium with tinfoil barbs and silver dollars... I also would have never curbed my 55 gallon.Or the 10 gallon with light that was with it. Oh and i would have never bought the (literally) starving to death silver dollars that i did. :/

I would have never attempted an Oscar, a Clown Knife and a Black Ghost knife in a 10 gallon aquarium with tinfoil barbs and silver dollars... I also would have never curbed my 55 gallon.Or the 10 gallon with light that was with it. Oh and i would have never bought the (literally) starving to death silver dollars that i did. :/

Whoa! Just for fun, I ran that first scenario through AqAdvisor. Here's the results:

That does seem to be a recurring theme! Maybe we should write that article and submit it for Sticky status.

Setting up your new aquarium:

Step 1: PUMP THE BRAKES!

That's not a bad idea for an article for first-timers. Just need to be able to word it better. Maybe I should take a stab at it. I enjoy writing especially about fish. I'm getting ready to start a low-tec planted community tank. For what I've read about those patience is basically the only thing you need other than fish, water, and plants.